Collection Gothic Glam lipstick in Seduction

Hiya pickles!

About Christmas time I bought a couple of Collection (previously called 'Collection 2000') lipsticks from the Gothic Glam collection. At the time I'd only just discovered that Collection don't test on animals so this was my first purchase from them for a good few years.

I'm swatching the red shade here today and I'll show you the deep purple shade another day. I'm also trying to get my hands on shade 3, which is a darker, vampier red, but it's constantly sold out on the Superdrug website.

Pucker up

I was quite surprised by the quality of the lipstick itself. It's quite moisturising and smells like fruit (berries?) The bullet itself is quite stiff (and hard to twist up) and very cheap plastic, but for £2.99 I can't complain at all. As to wear time, 2-3 hours? It's hard for me to say because I'm a put-it-on-and-forget-about-it girl. Once it's on I don't keep looking at myself in the mirror. I have quite well moisturised, juicy lips and I think sometimes a drier lip does hold on to a bright colour longer. It's that pinky red colour I seem to favour and gravitate to like magic.

I have a really weird thing because of my Fibromyalgia and that's the inability to pick out certain scents (and sometimes colours!) any more. My brain just goes 'Nah!' That's why I *think* the lipstick smells like berries but wouldn't swear to it. ;)

Since I get more excited by lipsticks than any other make up lately, I can see some more Collection lippies in my life. At £2.99 (or £3.99 for their deluxe lipsticks) it'd be rude not to.

Don't you just love it when cheap make up surprises you?!

What's the best beauty bargain you've had recently?

Thanks for peeking.

Best matte red lip colour ever? Lime Crime Velvetines

Hello all!

I may have found THE best red lip colour ever, but I feel a bit guilty about it.

For years there has been a lot of drama in the beauty world about Lime Crime. I don't need to mention why here because there are lots of posts on Google about it so I'll leave it there. That said, I'd read enough evidence over the years from sources I trust for me to swear off them fo' lyfe. Until I saw swatches of this lip colour, and revealed myself to be a giant hypocrite.

They looked so good. Damn.

I'm not usually one to jump aboard a bandwagon. If the bloggersphere is raving on about something it makes me want to head in the opposite direction, even if things look OMG-ERMERZIN. Me no sheepie. However, after thinking about this product long and hard, I decided to buy it, and I don't regret it, even though it makes me feel a little dirty.

Cue scowly faced full-face shot for reference.

I bought this from Love Makeup at the reduced price of £10.50 (now £11.50.) You get 3g in a frosted glass container with a metal lid.

It's very wet like a lipgloss when you first apply it, which dries completely to a matte finish in about a minute.

While it dries I find myself pouting like a porn star between appendages as it feels a little bit sticky in the corners of my mouth (stop laughing!) Once it has dried it's totally matte and I can't feel I'm wearing it at all. Although it LOOKS like my lips are dried out, that's just the product settling into my fine lines. My lips don't feel dry during or after wear at all. I've been wearing this almost every day for a week and my lips don't feel any drier than normal, and I'm not an obsessive lip balm user, so my lips aren't exactly plump and juicy to start with. Even IF it did make my lips dry, I'd be quite happy to supplement them with some lip balm as this is a red which turns heads. It gives me a mouth made for sin. ;)

Wear time for me varies on different parts of my lips. The colour on the outer parts of my lips lasts all day long, but the inner parts do need a touch up after I've eaten or had a drink, and if I bite into something and my lips graze my hands, the colour does transfer from the centre part. Like when nomming on burgers, for instance.

Long story short, it's a great red which wears long and will make people stare at you in a way which will make you feel slightly violated. Scowl at them in a fierce manner and move on so you can spread your fabulous all over town. A major bonus and selling point for me is this is a cruelty free product. Yass, no bunnies hurt to aid my sass.

Despite my feelings about Lime Crime, I've considered buying a back up of this as I can't imagine life my lips without it now.

Have you ever thrown out your standards for a product you just couldn't resist? If so, how do you deal with the guilt?! Haaaalp.

I deal with it by looking in the mirror and pouting at myself. It's hard to feel guilty when you look fabulous.

Thanks for reading.

EDIT 2015: Lime Crime's recent scandal where they didn't pay for a security setting on their site leading to loads of people having their financial details stolen means I'm off Lime Crime for good. No more new purchases!

My nail polish collection - reds

Hi lovelies!

I'm going to show you the reds from my stash today.

Pinks are here.
Silver/grey, grurple here.
Purples and lilacs here.
Blue and teal here.

Click on photos to see larger images.

elf Fire Coral, Accessorize Fire Cracker, La Femme Ruby Grapefruit, Nails Inc St James, 17 mini red.

Models Own Scarlet Sparkle, Barry M 150 Red Glitter, Nails Inc Dean Street, Mac Rocker, Revlon 89.

Boots red (from a set, no name), elf Red Velvet, MUA Shade 7, Nails Inc The Vale, Ruby & Millie Red.

Boots Burgundy (from a set, no name), elf Plum, Nails Inc Chester Square, Barry M 115 Red Black.

Of course, by the time I finish posting photos of my collection I'll have bought more....I've since been gifted 8 bottles since I started, and have bought 3 myself. Eek!

Have you got a lot of red polish?

Thanks for reading!

My Valentines FOTD

Hiya!

This is the make up I'm wearing tonight. I took about 400,000 photos and hated them all. It was just bad timing - I was watching the tea didn't burn, taking photos of the sunset, washing up, taking outfit photos and taking these and I got a major sweat on, so I look like I've bathed in olive oil in these shots. Meh, perfectionism sucks! On to the photos, click to enlarge if you want to stare romantically into my pores ;)

 

I think this was one of those rare (for me) looks which actually looked better in person than on camera.
I used:

Abyss (red) and Zeitgeist (black) eyeshadows from Illamasqua
Benefit They're Real mascara
elf Flawless Finish Foundation in Porcelain
Illamasqua concealer in shade 115
MUA cream blusher in Bittersweet
elf matte lipstick in Rich Red
Body Shop Brow & Liner Kit in shade 02
MUA shade 2 used as a highlight under my brows

I am totally loving the youthfulness cream blusher gives my skin. If you haven't tried, dooooo it! You won't regret it!

Hubby and I had a lovely evening. We watched This Is War with Tom Hardy, Chris Pine and Reese Witherspoon. It was a LOT funnier than I was expecting and I'm very proud to say hubby now has a massive man crush on Tommy. He's impossible not to like (I am perhaps a little biased!)

I hope whatever you did - single and ready to mingle or coupled up - you had a nice evening.

Thanks for reading!

Illamasqua eyeshadow swatches

Hello lovely ones!

I made an order from Illamasqua in their sale some weeks ago and here are my spoils. I got 3 pressed eyeshadows and a loose pigment. They were a fiver each. They are pictured without primer but I think they will all be more vibrant over a primer.

Top row - Angst & Burst//Bottom row Savage & Zeitgeist.

Top row - Angst & Burst//Bottom row Savage & Zeitgeist.

Zeitgeist is just stunning with its silver sparkle

Expect a FOTD using a couple of these colours soon!

I also have some Illamasqua foundation and concealer to show you. The concealer smells like vanilla! Oh my days. Yum.

Have you bought anything by Illamasqua?

Thanks for reading!